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A few years ago when the Fourth King of Bhutan voluntarily stepped down to make way for democracy, there was a spate of articles in the media about Bhutan. Almost all these articles – with a few exceptions – could be grouped into two camps: one glorified Bhutan as the last Shangri-la, the others claimed that it practiced ethnic cleansing.
The National Geographic aired a documentary which named Bhutan, the tiny Buddhist kingdom as the world's last Shangri-La. It celebrated its mountains, glacial walls, alpine highlands and misty forests and mentioned “Bhutan is a Living Eden where respect for life, in all its many incarnations, endures like the land itself”.
Landscape of Bhutan. Image by Flickr user Jmhullot, used under a creative commons license
Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar at Real clear World said:
Bhutan has done many things to deserve its Shangri-La reputation. Its forest cover is a very high 72%, and it has pledged to keep this above 60 % for eternity.
Meanwhile, Nanda Gautam at Ex Ponto countered:
A new trend in the sphere of human rights violations is flourishing! In contrast to Bhutan’s development philosophy called ‘Gross National Happiness,’ which many delegations visiting Bhutan are proclaiming a ‘good lesson’, Bhutan also offers a bad lesson: strategic violence in the form of ethnic cleansing, a lesson the world powers will find difficult to deal with. The ordeal of Tel Nath Rizal reflects how the state’s violation of one person’s rights spilled over to affect an entire minority. The minority population has already been reduced dramatically.
Most of these writers, if not all, were not Bhutanese. So how is it that they came to view this small country – the size of Switzerland and a population of 600,000 – in such extremes?
The first group, the admirers, usually came from the west where capitalism has led to a way of life that may have equipped them with material contents, but left many with a gaping spiritual void. They are people seeking for things they do not find in their own cultures; yet find it elsewhere. Often in places like Bhutan – largely mysterious, exotic and peaceful. So when they find it, they tend to see only the things they want to see and find only the things they want to find.
But this also applies to the second camp, the ones who hate Bhutan. They have little or no understanding of the country’s geo-political situation. They don’t understand the history or the complex nature of the refugee problem; and they are either sympathizing with the cause, or they just need a cause.
For the first camp, the search for Shangri-la didn’t just happen; it has been ongoing since 1933 when James Hilton depicted a Shangri-la in his novel, Lost Horizon based on an article by Joseph Rock about his travels to the Tibetan borderlands. But more often than not, it is Hilton’s version that they are after thus refusing to see Bhutan as a country like any other – inhabited by human beings, with its share of problems.
Bhutan is far from being the Utopia despite its largely tranquil history. As a poor country Bhutan has its share of social problems and challenges and the biggest blight to its good reputation so far has been the issue of the refugees.
A nation-wide census in the 80’s found thousands of illegal settlers along the country’s southern borders. Most of these people were Nepalese people from Nepal and India who came to Bhutan seeking economic opportunities and utilize the large tracts of free agricultural land along porous borders. Free health and educational facilities were also an added attraction. At around this time, some Lhotsampas (Ethnic Nepali-speaking Bhutanese) who were educated by the Bhutanese government in overseas universities like Harvard and Cambridge returned to Bhutan nursing their own political ambitions.
Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. Image by Sudeshna Sarkar, ISN Security Watch
The problem came to a head when the Bhutanese government demanded all illegal settlers, leave the country. This decision was opposed by the ambitious Lhotsampa leaders who sympathized with the settlers and so mobilized protests against the Bhutanese government demanding democracy and overthrow of the monarch. The environment to nurse their political ambitions was extremely favorable. They galvanized the southern people’s discontent with violent protests in which they decapitated heads of two Bhutanese and planted them at a government office. The Bhutanese government who had never experienced anything like this cracked down and arrested many of the leaders while some escaped to Nepal.
What resulted was a situation where both sides accused the other of what unfolded. Lhotsampas claim that anybody who was Nepali-speaking was forced out of the country. As the Bhutanese Community of South Australia blog mentions:
From 1988, the human rights situation aggravated, when Royal Government enacted discriminatory policies to depopulate the Lhotshampas - Southern Bhutanese of Nepalese origin, predominantly Hindus.
The Royal government treats Lhotsampas as second class citizens. They are persecuted, discriminated and denied the most basics like access to education and health facilities. They are deprived of their cultural rights and are forced to adopt the cultural tradition, costume and language of the ruling elite. In the late eighties, the Royal Government adopted retroactive citizenship legislation and started to disenfranchise and depopulate the Lhotshampas. Tens and thousands of them were forcibly evicted, who ended up in the United Nations established refugees camps in Nepal. [..]
Having failed to see the possibility of repatriation, a vast number of Bhutanese refugees have accepted the offer given by Australia, Canada, Denmark, Netherland, New Zealand, Norway and United States for third country resettlement.
The Bhutanese government claimed that while some were asked to leave, many citizens left voluntarily under threats from their own leaders. Bhutan’s first democratically elected Prime Minister Jigme Y. Thinley wrote at Bhutannica:
The situation in the south is not a simple problem. Its causes are complex and perplexing as the resultant human drama that is unfolding before us. Just who is the victim or villain is a valid question. The answer must be sought with a deeper understanding of the problem. [..]
Among the villagers in' the south, every day is a nightmare. But their voice is not heard by the media, and their human rights appear not to be of any importance. Explanations by the Government are dismissed as propaganda and plain untruths. Even concrete evidence is seen as fabrications.
The Bhutanese feel that they have been betrayed by a people they had welcomed, in whom they had placed their trust and with whom they were willing to share a common destiny. But the general attitude of the Bhutanese toward their southern compatriots do not indicate any rancour.
The adoption of human rights is a convenient banner that the dissidents and the Nepalese supporters have raised before the international community. But their greater aim is to generate international sympathy for the dissident cause, which is to grab political power.
The story got complicated as the refugees arrived in Nepal. UNHCR set up camps for the Bhutanse refugees in which free food and stipend was given and in a few years the numbers rose from 5000 (1991) to 100,000. The handouts attracted many people other than Bhutanese to those camps as more than half of Nepal's population live on less than a dollar a day.
Ethnic cleansing is a very serious charge. People who make that accusation about Bhutan should visit the country and see that thousands of Nepali-speaking people still live and work there; that even before the crisis the Fourth King encouraged integration of the ethnic groups through inter marriage with special cash incentives. Many even hold very senior positions in the government.
So what is Bhutan? A ‘Shangri-La' or ‘ethnic cleanser'? Neither, is the answer. And it would be nice if people really stopped imposing their dreams of an Eden, or their disillusionment of failed political causes and ambitions, on this little Country.
What is almost never discussed is the fate of the Lhotshampas LIVING IN AND AROUND THE CAPITAL AND PARO…….
they also have no rights, no access to higher education etc.
I lived in Bhutan for 3 years and JUST BECAUSE I WANTED TO HELP A YOUNG BHUTANESE, I GOT EXPELLED FROM THE COUNTRY BY THE CURRENT HOME MINISTER……who declared that 5 years waiting for some answer on the request made by the young person…WAS NOTHING…. and upon bringing to his attention that the young person’s father had been in the Bhutanese Military fri 27 years, saying that the Military’s records were unreliable and could not be counted on for this investigation. WITH HIGH OFFICIALS STILL ACTING LIKE THAT AND DENYING BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS TO TENS OF THOUSANDS, WHOSE SOLE CRIME IS TO BE THE CHILDREN OF BHUTANESE OF NEPALI ORIGIN………WE HAVE LITTLE HOPE, UNLESS THE PRIME MINISTER AND K5 START TO LOOK INTO THE HOME MINISTER’S BEHAVIOR
Well, the history of the FAMOUS Hans J. Keller in Bhutan, is the history of quarreling with people in every direction. He was booted out from the Hotel Management institute project, he was booted out of the KISA hotel project, he was booted out of the Swiss Bakery project, so it’s no surprise that he was finally booted out of the country.
The story of Bhutan is the story of gullible people and that’s how misfits and self-promoters like HJK find their way so easily into Bhutan. Some, like Christopher Benninger, the self-proclaimed Greatest City Planner on Earth, thrive because they make it a point to please at least some people. Others like HJK don’t last very long because they quarrel too much.
He wasn’t thrown out of Bhutan because he was standing up for the rights of nepalese in Bhutan. He was thrown out for the way he was going about it, barging his way into the Home Minister’s office, demanding what he wanted, raising his voice to the minister, and not taking no for an answer. Like it was HIS office. And totally missing out on the politics of the problem which cuts both ways.
Thsering,
you are certainly badly informed as to my persona….where do you get your blatant misinformation?????
are you a relative of the Home Minister???
here goes the facts:
1. with no work permit renewal, i obviously had to find another solution to the Middle Management Program, in full force at the RIM.
i did and the program goes on as scheduled. and 30 Bhutanese hotel peopel will get their Diploma next spring, thanks to two swiss foundations and also thanks to the fact that i did not pay myself in the two years the course has been going.
2. The Swiss Bakery…..we had a written contract, which was arbitraly changed by the owners…after they figured out that they might have to pay some taxes…..what a novelty….. on the 200.000 NU rent we agreed…..depriving 4 young Bhutanese to set up their own business…..
3. the Kisa Story was simple enough. there was a delay in opening and the owner wanted me to come back 5 month later….which i was not in a position to do. and some other circumstances that i will be glad to share with you privately…not in public
as to the Youngster and his sister looking for help………both the Minister of Education and the Minister of Communication suggested that we should see the home minister, and the Minister of Communications set up the appointment, so your comment about me barging into the Home Ministers office is not only not factual, but a total a distortion of the truth.
THE HOME MINISTER STARTED THE ARGUMENT BY TELLING ME OFF IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS THAT I HAD NO RIGHT TO COME TO HIS OFFICE…….AND THAT I WAS INTERFERRING IN HIS JOB.
HE ALSO TOLD THE YOUNGSTER HE COULD HAVE HIM PUT IN JAIL….FOR TALKING TO A FOREIGNER ABOUT BHUTAN’S INTERNAL AFFAIRS.
AFTER HE MADE UNSUSTAINABLE STATEMENTS ABOUT IT BEING OK FOR THE YOUNGSTER TO WAIT FOR 5 YEARS….ETC.
YES, I SPOKE UP, JUST TO COUNTERACT THIS BLATANT NONSENSE.
BY CONTRAST THE TWO PREVIOUS MINISTERS BOTH APPOLOGIZED TO THE YOUNGSTER FOR THE SITUATION…. BY THE WAY AFTER THE HOME MINISTRY SENT THE YOUNGSTER BACK DOWN SOUTH FOR 5 MORE TIMES, HE WAS NO DEFINITLY DECLARDED PERSONA NON GRATA…..WITH THE MOTHER RECEIVING A PENSION FROM THE SAME GOVERNMENT…. GET YOUR FACTS.
AND…BY THE WAY, I AM PAYING NOW FOR THE COLLEGE OF THE YOUNGSTER IN INDIA TO BECOME A PHARMACOLOGIST….. SINCE HE WAS NOT ALLOWED TO REGISTER IN HIS OWN COUNTRY…..
SO, IF YOU DARE TO CALL ME A MISFIT AND SELFPROMOTER……YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE A PROBLEM OF BEING TOLD BY SOMEONE WHAT TO WRITE. SAD FOR YOU.
ALL COUNTRIES HAVE PROBLEMS AND THE PROBLEM IS NOT TO HAVE THE PROBLEM, THE PROBLEM IS TO DENY IT AND ACUSE THE REST OF THE PEOPLE OF NOT UNDERSTANDING.
my reply to you has been withheld so far awaiting moderation.
anyway, look at the pattern of your relationships in Bhutan (or elsewhere). Too many pissed off people in a row should indicate some problem, don’t you think?
you can’t seem to see the forest for the trees.
Hans, I think nobody in Bhutan gets expelled for such a simple reason – i.e for helping another. I know of many children getting sponsored to study overseas and getting all kinds of assistance. I also know many Lhotsampa’s (my friends)- as I write – who are heading home from getting an MBA or a training overseas through the govt. I think your case was more complicated than it sounds and like any govt. the Bhutanese govt has a zero tolerance for foreigners getting involved in its security issues.
What I find baffling is that in the west, the original inhabitants of the lands that were colonized are still second class citizens in their own countries- even after hundreds of years. We have seen how colonizers have come, always as harmless immigrants. The standards that you ask Bhutan to live up to have often not even been met in dealing with the minorities of your own countries.
Racism has a darker history in the west than it does in Bhutan. No Lhotsam or Nepali in the history of Bhutan was killed because of the color of his skin or for who he was – being a Nepali. Even at the height of the crisis, Drukpas were still living side by side with Lhotsam brothers and sisters – even in the south. Foreigners fail to see this as an immigration issue. If the U.S asks illegal Mexican immigrants to leave is it a Human Rights issue? Would Mexicans then be considered “refugees?” the U.S has the capacity to absorb immigrants, Bhutan doesn’t. Our geo-political history also makes us extremely cautious about how we deal with immigrants. Look no further than Tibet and the predicament it has suffered at the hands of people who came as friends. Sikkim and Darjeeling too. History is a great teacher.
Bhutan’s system is not perfect (I think, amongst a few other things, it needs to revise its NOC policy now that the crisis is over) but when it comes to security I think Bhutan has a right to protect itself for we do not have economic or military power (or power of the population) and should anything happen, I don’t think we can rely on international assistance. Otherwise Tibet would have long been independent.
Dear Sonam Ongmo,
THank you for your impressive writeup. As a freelance writer, what do you like to say to the Bhutanese resettled in different nations who still dream that they would return home one day in future. Are the doors of repatriation closed for these ill-fates folloing their resettlement or do you believe will they go back to Bhutan? Please, let me know what reporters, journalists and the freelance writers like you inside Bhutan think about it….
Susanne,
Tsk, Tsk, your bias is evident. Why attack the writer, when it’s the content that should be debated. If you really want stories from the other side there’s plenty of stuff on the internet. And how stupid do you think our minister’s are to have laughed as you allege?
Hans,
Three years in Bhutan and yet you saw what you wanted to see. There are plenty of Lhotsam students on government scholarships out there. Don’t get taken by all the victimization stories – third world people know how to manipulate westerners who are out to save us.
Thanks Manga. I think the people who have decided to be repatriated in the west, signed up to make their homes there and so do not expect to go back to Bhutan. I met 2 people who are actually Nepalis (from Nepal) but they managed to come here as Bhutanese refugees. I think that speaks volumes about why many of them were in the camps to begin with. Do you seriously think they want to go to Bhutan when they aren’t from there? Do you know how many people in Nepal buy visas to come to the U.S?
Bhutan has always said that it will take back willingly anyone who can prove citizenship. Talks have been going on with the Nepalese govt ever since the time they left (1980′s) but you must realize that talks were disrupted constantly because there was no consistency in the Nepalese govt. and there were innumerable problems in that country.
Hans-
I totally agree with Sonam. It was very kind of you to take on the cause of this young fellow that you are talking about but sometimes there are more to things that meets the eye.
How is it that people and governments in the west can validate illegal immigration? The “Illegal aliens” are immediately deported to their country of origin. When Bhutan does that, she is accused of expelling her “citizens”.
I am so damn tired of explaining to people in the west about the fragile geopolitical situation surrounding our country. If one studies or even attempts to do so, one will realize that in South East Asia, Bhutan is a minuscule country surrounded by its giant neighbors who are dealing daily with separatist and terrorist groups. Some of whom even entered Bhutan demanding an independent state for themselves. What an irony- didn’t they realize that they were violating the sovereignty of an independent country. What about the growing threat of Maoism in the so called “refugee camps” in Nepal. For crying out loud, can we afford to be complacent. The answer is a definite NO.
Talking about discrimination- a word, I find personally is used so easily to justify personal causes and sometimes even acts of terrorism. What about the biggest social injustice “the caste system” which is a part and parcel of certain group of people’s social norms
All the commenters supporting Bhutan.
Please reply the following:
Why the houses of the people in the south have been destroyed and land and property has been distributed to people from North and east Bhutan?
Why there is no any army and police recruit from Losampsa after 1990? and yet you claim that, RGOB has been fair to all citizens.
Why there is no one dzongdag, secretary, and senior post in RGOB, after 1990?
Why there are no losampas in Foreign Ministry?
Why few numbers of losamps are send to study abroad and flooded large numbers from north?
Why the land bought by losampas take years to transfer when your is done in minutes?
why you have not built a single Hindu temple and churches but flooded monasteries in the south?
Why you don’t allow a free media to travel independently in BHutan, particularly in the south?
But allow the reporters to make TV program and exploit the poor tribes like layaps, and others?
How can you tell the poor in kheng and east that GNH will cover their leaky roof and drop food from the heaven in the empty stomach?
I think you have to be realistic to come out and say the world the truth. Don’t portray the innocence of natural beauty and the humbleness of poor people and sell the country to hide your odds.
Thanks,
parsu
Parsu,
What do you think you achieve when you hold Bhutan to standards that none of the countries in south asia can meet? The very reason Bhutan is flooded by Nepalese immigrants is because Nepal is a failed state, or almost one.
If you chose to, you would find that Bhutan does MUCH better in many areas, if you guys ever bothered to acknowledge it.
We don’t have a caste system. We don’t have even a tiny fraction of murders that take place in the rest of south asia. No christian missionaries have been killed like in India and pakistan. We don’t have bandhs and strikes and hartals that serve nobody except the politicians. We don’t have starving millions in giant slums. We don’t have bloodthirsty maoists, except the new fangled ones coming out of nepal. We have a rapidly growing middle class and a literacy rate that will soon be the highest in south asia. We are first as far as least corrupted countries go, in south asia. We have a government that is more or less accountable to the people. We have an economy growing at a rate of 5% today, which has been the lowest in the last 10 years. Just last year the economy grew at 10%.
and we still accept the hundreds of thousands of bhutanese of nepalese descent as citizens, even though many of them betrayed the country in 1990.
Oh yes! you still seems to be racial in part of ethnic cleansing.
First of all thank you Sonam for your great work! Karma(the constant voice across the oceans) and anybody who can think and see beyond propaganda.
OK, so I’m on the inside. Does this mean that what I’m about to write is highly ‘suspect’? For once and for all why don’t these ‘experts’ on Bhutan let the ones on the inside live in peace? The only aggression and hate we see is from people on the ‘outside’! We do live in Bhutan and that makes our comments REAL. Suzanne, please be my guest…I’ll take you to the south of our beautiful country and what you see and discover will ‘disappoint’ you.
In this region- as a “Bhotay” race we are almost extinct as compared to our Nepali counterparts. Now, even animals are protected from extinction in this enlightened world that we live in….So come on!!! Give us “Bhotay Drukpas” a break! I don’t know about Shangrila, but each time I come back home from the craziness outside…the palpable peace and serene stillness in the ‘air’ makes me unbelievably glad to call Bhutan my home and country. The only thing we Bhutanese have done is try to survive; to keep our heads above water throughout the centuries…often times at the risk of being labeled “barbaric”…When times were the toughest, we rose to the challenge – even against the earliest British envoys. We didn’t sell out to them and are not about to take that direction any time soon.
Our world at large is faced with the question of the very survival of the human race- wouldn’t it be wiser to channel your energy in that direction instead of attacking a small country like ours?
If people with ‘global voices’ like yours have your way, we will undoubtedly end up like neighbouring Sikkim..minorities in our own country, forgetting our language, our customs, to make way for greater Nepal that exists right at our doorsteps. Kalimpong used to be Bhutanese territory – now, mostly Nepalese live there and it is irrevocably dominated by their culture. Darjeeling belonged to Sikkim but it is now the hub of an aggressive political movement demanding ‘Gorkhaland’ and eventually a greater Nepal which includes Bhutan in that agenda.
There are greater evils that need to be addressed…real ones; such as the caste system in Nepalese society where women and lower castes have been suppressed for thousands of years. Clean up your own backyard first before taking on someone else’s!
Here we have a Lhotsampa as the Minister for Education. I hear he is not from the Brahmin caste. I wonder whether he would have the kind of success in becoming a democratically elected leader, if he was in Nepal? And that’s why he belongs in Bhutan and wouldn’t dream of migrating anywhere else. I wouldn’t think twice if any child of mine wanted to marry into that caste..Bhutanese, American, African..we’re all human beings and that’s what matters! Live and let live people….live and let live.
Thanks everyone, both sides, for your comments.
The purpose of writing this piece was to provide clarification and not incite anger and hatred.
I think, as a writer, I have a responsibility to improve communication and understanding and I hope that you all do the same.
With regard to that, I would like to say that because of the inter-net, there has been so much mis-information out there. Contrary to popular belief, I believe that people, especially from Nepal, who have been writing about the refugee issue have done a great dis-service to the Lhotsham population. Their actions have done nothing but sowed seeds of disenfranchisement, hatred and racism.
Parsu, it is good to question and investigate the facts because only through that do you come to learn the truth. I hope you will further investigate the answers I give you because that is the only way you can know. If you still feel discriminated against after learning the truth then all I can suggest is that you ask the leaders who led their population out of Bhutan, why they did that, and what they have achieved through their selfish ambitions. I think more than look to the Bhutanese govt. for answers you should make them answerable and have them change their strategy, which has clearly not worked.
The world is not perfect, and neither are govts. I have many grievances against my govt. too but I can say that after traveling the world and comparing it to many, it is by far, more progressive than most I have seen. That being said, it does not mean that we should not strive at making it better. But there are ways of doing it – constructively, peacefully, and by enlightening yourself with the facts.
judging by your Q’s it seems like you are not from within Bhutan so let me answer you best I can.
* Re. destruction of land and properties. At the time of vacating villages in the south many houses were left empty and fields fallow. Lhotsam colleagues I worked with said that their families couldn’t live in peace from death threats from rebel leaders who wanted them to join the exodus to Nepal. Wild elephants that came at night and trampled un-manned crops and homes. For these reasons they evacuated their families to the north where they lived cramped in little apartments for months. After the problem subsided, these Lhotsham’s went back to their villages and rebuilt their lives. The destruction was not caused Bhutanese.
*Re armed forces, misinformation. Bhutan still has many Lhotsam’s in its armed forces and if they can provide NOC’s be recruited.
*Re no Lhotsham in senior positions of govt. again misinformation. There are many in govt. to name a few: Education Minister (Lyonpo Thakur Powdyell) and Information Minister (Lyonpo Nandalal) are both Lhotshams from Southern Bhutan. The Chairman of Druk Holdings and Investments (Lyonpo Om Pradhan) that oversees all industrial projects is from Southern Bhutan. The deputy speaker of parliament is Lhotsham. There are several members of parliament also from Southern Bhutan.
*Re land transfers, misinformation. It takes equally long for northerners to get land transfers. This is a flaw with the entire land system which is being overhauled, not a policy of discrimination.
*Re allowing media to travel freely. As a media person I think this policy has hurt the govt. more than it has helped, but I think they have done it precisely for the reasons that foreign media has been irresponsible and misinforming people.
*Exploiting Layaps etc. is your own biased personal opinion.
*Re people of Kheng. Bhutan is a poor country, lest you forget. Like any country, some parts, poorer than others. The 5th King has been traveling extensively around the country on foot to assess the welfare situation.
and I agree with you. I think people need to be more realistic in acknowledging the situation from a wider perspective and not a narrow, blinkered one.